law calling for sanctions against russians found to be human rights violators. good news for netflix users. the service is up and running again after users in the u.s. and canada and latin america were not able to stream shows on certain devices on christmas eve. a lot of angry folks were out there. it was the result of an outage at a web service center in virginia. up next, disappointing holiday sales for retailers. it was the slowest growth since the recession. a new poll shows about half of americans are hopeful about their lives in 2013. are you more hopeful or fearful about what's in store next year? it's our gut check. as always, you can join the "news nation." there is our address. facebook.com/"news nation." . >> join the "news nation" on twitter. you can find the twitter page at "news nation." today of course one of the biggest shopping days of the year, it's a day when consumers try to ditch gifts they didn't want on their list at all. it has not been a great season. electronics and jewelry and home goods grew by the slowest margin since the recession.